Beautiful Withering
by Dokiprez
Summary: Sixteen year old Rin is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Len's genuine love for her, and trust among the other wives, Rin has one purpose: to escape and find her twin brother. With the help of Kaito, a servant she is growing dangerously attracted to, Rin attempt to break free, in the limited time she has.


**DISCALIMER: I DO NOT OWE THE VOCALOIDS, OR THE PLOT OF WITHER; THEY BELONG TO THEIR RIGHTFUL OWENERS.**

…

Rin has been in the dark so long that she loses sense of her eyelids. She huddles with other girls, staring into the darkness. It seems to be never ending.

She knows when a girl reaches a wall. She begins to scream, pounding on the metal- but Rin, or any of the other girls bother to help her. They have gone too long without speaking, and all they can do is bury them into more dark.

Suddenly, the door opens. The light is frightening her. She and the others recoil in horror, not wanting to begin or end. She stumbles, when they let her out, it feels she has forgotten how to use her legs. How long has it been, days, hours? Rin stands in line with the other girls, and men in gray coats study them.

She's heard of this happening. Where Rin comes from, girls have been disappearing for a long time. They disappear from their beds or from the side of a road. Now it's her turn.

Rin knows they disappear, but any number of things could come after that. Will she become a murder reject? Sold into prostitution? These things have happened. There's only one other option. She can become a bride. Rin has seen them on television, reluctant yet beautiful teenage brides, on the arm of a wealthy man who is approaching the lethal age of twenty-five.

The other girls never make it to the television screen. Girls who don't pass the inception are shipped to a brothel in the scarlet district. Some have found murdered on the sides of roads, rotting, staring into the searing sun because Gatherers couldn't be bothered to deal with them Some girls disappear for ever, and all their families can do is wonder.

The girls are taken as young as thirteen, when their bodies are mature enough to bear children, and the virus claims every female of Rin's generation by twenty.

Rin's hips are measured to determine strength, lips pried apart so the men can judge her health by teeth. One of the girls vomits. She may be the girl who screamed. She wipes her mouth, trembling, terrified, Rin stands firm, determined to be anonymous, unhelpful.

Rin feels to alive in this row off moribund girls with their eyes half open. She sense that their hearts are barely beating, while hers pounds in her chest. After so munch time spent riding in the darkness of the truck, they all have fused together. They are nameless thing sharing this strange hell. Rin does not want to stand out.

But it doesn't matter anyways, someone has noticed her, A man paces before the line. He allows her to be prodded by the men in gray coats who examine her. With growing hate for this man, Rin realizes he seems thoughtful and pleased.

His eyes, green, like two exclamation marks, meet hers. Rin sucks in her breath. He smiles. There's a flash of gold in his teeth, indicating wealth. This is unusual, for he is too young to be losing teeth. As he walks away, Rin studies the back of his head, noting blond hair tied into a small ponytail.

_Crap! _Rin thinks, she should have never looked up. The strange color of her eyes is the first thing anyone notices.

He says something to the men in gray coats. They look back, and they seem to be in agreement. The man with gold teeth flashes Rin a grin again, sending shivers down her spin. Then he's taken to another car that shoots up bits of gravel as it backs onto the road and drives away.

Rin watches warily as the girl with vomit are taken away back to the truck, and a dozen other girls with her; a man in a gray coat follows them in. Rin senses two other girls with her. She doesn't bother to check their appearance. The men speak to on another again, then to them. "Go," they say, and Rin oblige. There's nowhere to go but the back of an open limousine parked on the gravel.

Rin can hear the faraway sounds of traffic. She can see the distant purple haze. It's nowhere she recognize, a road this desolate is far from the crowded streets back at home.

The two other chosen girls move before Rin, and Rin's the last to get in the limousine. There's a tinted glass window the separates her from the driver. Just before someone shuts the door, Rin hears something inside the van where the remaining girls were herded. It's the first of what she knows will be a dozen more gunshots.

…

Rin awakes with a jolt, nauseous and pulsating with sweat. She grips the sating sheets tightly, knuckles turning white. Her first conscious movement is to push herself of the mattress where she leans over and vomits onto the lush red carpet. The bad taste in her mouth is terrible, and she sits up gagging. Someone begins cleaning up the mess with a dishrag.

"Everyone handles the sleep gas differently," he says softly. Rin blearily glances at him, not shocked by his beauty. Bright blue eyes, and light blue hair, with a handsome face.

"Sleep gas?" She sputters, and before she can wipe her mouth on her lacy white sleeve, he hands her a cloth napkin- also lush red.

"It comes out through the vents in the limo," he replies smoothly. "It's so you wont known where you're going. Rin recalls the glass window separating her from the front or the car. Airtight she supposes. Vaguely she remembers the whooshing of air coming through the vents in the walls.

"One of the other girls," the attractive man says as he sprays white foam on the spot Rin had vomited, "she almost threw herself out the bedroom window, she was so disoriented. The window's locked of course. Shatterproof." Despite the awful things he's saying, his voice is low, possibly even sympathetic.

Rin looks behind her shoulder at the window. As expected, closed tight, sealing her in. Beyond it is bright green and blue.

Somewhere down the hall a scream a women screams. Rin quickly jumps to her feet, thoughts racing. As she makes a beeline for the door, the man stops her. Somehow the sudden cold look in his eyes prevents her from having any more thoughts of leaving her room. Cautiously, Rin sits back on her bed. The man resumes to scrubbing the floor.

"I can help," She offers. A moment ago Rin didn't feel any guilt for ruining anything in this place; she knows she hear against her will. But she also knows this man isn't to blame. He can't possibly be one of the Gatherers in gray who brought her here. Maybe he was also brought here against his will. Although Rin has never heard of boys disappearing, but up to fifty years ago, when a virus was discovered, girls were also safe. Everyone was safe.

"No need. It's all done," he says. And when he moves the rag away, there's not much of a stain. Tucking the can of white foam into his apron pocket and returns to what he was doing. Rin can't help but stare at his simplicity and perfection.

The young man picks up a silver tray from where had place in on the floor, and brings it to her night table. "If you're feeling better, there's some lunch for you. Nothing that will make you fall asleep again, I promise." Barely hiding his amused smile, he lifts a metal lid off a bowl of soup and another plate of steaming vegetables and mashed potatoes cradling gravy.

"That other girl- the one who tried to throw herself out the window-what happened to her?" Rin asks quietly. Rin doesn't dare ask about the women screaming down the hall. She has no intention of finding out what's happening to her.

"She's calmed down some."

"And the other one?"

"She woke up this morning. I think the House Governor took her to tour the gardens."

At the mention Of 'House Governor, Rin remembers her despair and crash against the pillows. House Governors own mansions. They purchase brides from Gathers, who patrol streets looking for ideal candidates to kidnap. The merciful ones will sell the rejects into prostitution, but the ones Rin encountered herded them into a van and shot them all.

"How long have I been here?" Rin questions.

"Two days, the man says. He hands her a steaming cup, and Rin is about to refuse it when she notices the tea bag sting dangling over the side. Tea. Her brother, Oliver, had it for breakfast each morning, and dinner each night. The spices remind her of home.

Gently taking the cup, Rin delicately hold it to her nose. It's all she can do not to burst into tears. The man must see the full impact of what has happened. He thinks that she might do something dramatic like crying or trying to fling my self out the window like that other girl, because he's already moving to the door. Without looking back, he leaves Rin to her grief.

…

When she presses her face to her pillow, instead of tears, comes out a animalistic scream of rage.

…

**Authors Note: So, did you guys enjoy it? Sorry for a short chapter, my first are always this short. Please read and review! I need an idea if this is a good start. Thanks! **


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